Marion County is rife with tales of things that go bump in the night

Sunday

Oct 28, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By almost any measure, it's pretty well established that the Seven Sisters Inn is Marion County's gold standard for ghost hunting.

By Rick AllenStaff writer

By almost any measure, it's pretty well established that the Seven Sisters Inn is Marion County's gold standard for ghost hunting.The deluxe bed and breakfast on Fort King Street has even been featured on SyFy's "Ghost Hunters," itself pretty much the gold standard in ghost hunting reality-TV programming.Closed for several years, the inn in Ocala's Historic District has risen from the dead; and people — the living as well as the dead — couldn't be happier."There's a good feeling here," says a psychic reader who gives her name only as Kayla. "They know they're dead but they're just hanging around having a good time."Especially one "Victorian gentleman," she adds. "He's always smoking a cigar and pinching the ladies' behinds."It's beautiful, beautiful; I'm so happy to be back here."And new operators Bob and Maria Schmidt are happy to have both, the living as well as the non, back in the 120-year-old house they reopened a few weeks ago. "Since we opened at this time, we thought we would do a series of paranormal-like things all the way through Halloween," Schmidt says. "We're encouraging paranormal here, but obviously we want to appeal to anyone who wants to stay in a beautiful B&B."But for the moment, ghosts rule. The Schmidts recently opened the inn with its fanciful bedrooms such as the Casablanca Suite and the Cairo Suite to a paranormal investigation group.And through Halloween, the inn is open nightly at 7 p.m. for "public investigations" where anyone can drop in for a bit of personal ghost hunting. Maybe even get their tushes touched.Or they might encounter unexplained knocks, noises or misplaced chairs that are part of the lore of this, the Rheinauer House — named for a family that lived here a century ago."If they're an enthusiast, they'll have their own equipment," Schmidt says. "Most don't. But they come through just to see if they sense something."Vickie O'Hara and her friend, Pam Howard, are just such amateurs. They wandered about on a recent night with their own Gauss meter seeking residual electrical signatures. "We're electric," Howard says. "When we die that electricity doesn't go away; it can be measured."About this time, the meter notes a small spike as O'Hara waves it over the bed in the Madrid Suite. "It lit up for us upstairs, too," she says.Schmidt, who says he's slept in each of the five bedrooms and hasn't encountered anything in any of them, says he's nevertheless welcomes others who might be "sensitive."I don't deny just because I'm not sensitive," he adds. But the Seven Sisters is by no means the only spirit spot in Marion County. The Star-Banner went haunting for more, and here is a ghostly handful of what we found:

Lights of Flemington and Spook Hill FireAnnabelle Leitner says she was raised on tales of these two spots along County Road 318 in northwest Marion County not far from the Levy County line. Her grandfather, Harry Smoak, used to tell the stories."Supposedly there was a buggy accident and it may be that a child was lost or a lady was decapitated," Annabelle says. "Anyway, at night you could see a lantern floating around as if looking for someone."Others who've heard the tale say the light disappeared when the road was repaved many years ago.Up the hill from that spot, Leitner continues, some people have seen "a ball of fire that rolls across the top of the hill late at night."When my grandfather first saw the ball of fire, he was a teenager, 318 was still a dirt road and he was headed west from his home in Flemington at night toward where Oak Hill School once stood, to court his then girlfriend," she relates this story on Facebook. "He often said that he had seen the ball of fire several times."Some people say it may just be the moon or the lights from Orange Lake," she adds. "But he said he saw it back to the 1920s before they had electricity in Orange Lake."

White horse of Oak HurstCatherine Wendell, owner and chief guide of the Ocala Ghost Walks & Historical Tours, says her favorite ghost tale isn't even on her nightly route; instead, it's the Legend of the Oak Hurst Plantation.As reported by area historian David Cook, "according to the Oak Hurst legend, the plantation owner and his wife went riding one day, and she was killed somehow. The owner later committed suicide."Thereafter, preceding any great tragedy in the Ocala area, a riderless white horse races up to the plantation home, snorting loudly, nostrils distended and covered with dust and sweat. The horse pauses a moment, and when people gather, it disappears."The horse reportedly was seen prior to the Thanksgiving Day fire in 1883 that destroyed much of downtown Ocala. The real plantation house was located, Cook notes, "off Lake Weir Avenue at Oakhurst (as it is spelled today) Road, which the city of Ocala unfortunately has changed to a meaningless number (Southeast 24th Road)."A later resident of the home, Cook continues, wrote a melodramatic tale called "The Tragedies of Oak Hurst" based largely on the legend of the plantation owner and his wife. Cook reports the book caused a scandal because, as the author wrote, "the majority of characters are from real life." Later, some families in Ocala "tried to buy up every available copy of the book."Wendell says she found a copy of the book, and it's among her prized possessions.

Haunted BelleviewKen Nadeau, a long-time resident and historian of Belleview, notes Marion County's second city has its share of haunts, too."There are two or three places in the Lake Lillian neighborhood," he writes in an email. "Dr. Shelley's office on Front Street is haunted by the ghost of a lady who hung herself on the second floor of the building."The Shelley home on Lake Lillian has had unexplainable attic noises, we saw mists in the Historical Society/Grange Hall Building, and the Lakeview Hotel (originally a sanitarium) has its share of spirits too."

Screaming at the RitzIt's no longer a hotel, but a ghostly party long has been associated with the Ritz Historic Inn at 1218 NE Second St. According to most accounts, a fire broke out during a party given by a wealthy socialite at the inn during Prohibition years."Several people died including the woman and her two dogs," notes the theshadowlands.net, a website dedicated to compiling haunted spots around the world. "To this day you can hear the sounds of that party in her room and also the sounds of people running into the hall and down the stairwell trying to escape the fire."

Church of ‘Jeepers Creepers'The St. James Church near York west of the Ocala Airport was featured in the B-grade 2001 horror film "Jeepers Creepers." Reportedly, even before the film strange lights could be seen and often a fog would shroud the building at night. It was torn down nearly 10 years ago following a fire, believed set by teenagers.

Don't move the paintingThe Victorian building at 725 E. Silver Springs Blvd., just east of downtown Ocala, has been home to many commercial ventures in the past decade or so. For a long time it housed Peter Dinkel's Restaurant. Several occupants of the building report there is a painting on the second floor that doesn't like to be moved. One once said his wife did move it, "and an hour later a bookcase fell on her leg. It's kind of a creepy building to be in at night."

Hooded man in the forestThe website hauntedhovel.com reports there's a "man who wanders up and down the country roads" in the Ocala National Forest "dressed in a long hooded black coat, which is worn so you cannot see his face." The listing notes that numerous travelers have reported "a man lying on the side of the road, and sitting on the guardrails of bridges late at night."Contact Rick Allen at rick.allen@starbanner.com or 867-4154.